The holidays are here. Thanksgiving was great. Christmas and New years is right around the corner. Everyone is getting ready to deal with the inlaws, eat way too much food, and watch a football game.

The question that’s been on everyone’s mind for awhile now, has been; ” Is it safe to travel? “. The conclusion that I came to was” Yes, it is”.

We are all scared right now because of Muslim extremist groups. Rightly so but, have our fears taken too much control over our lives? How bad is it affecting your holidays? I hear people talking about canceling their flights because of the attacks in Paris last week. This was the single deadliest terrorist attack in French history, that is true.

Up until now though France has been a safer country to live in than the US. In the 21 st century there have been under 50 deaths due to terrorist bombings or shootings in all of France. Excluding Both World Wars all of France has suffered under 160 deaths due to terrorist attacks in the 20th century. That’s not bad, because we are talking about 100 years.

A terrorist attack is;

The FBI uses this definition: “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

It is no more dangerous now than it was in the 60’s. The difference is now we have a face to put with the danger. Radical Muslims!! When your enemy now has a face, he looks a lot more terrifying than before. A paranoia has set in on our country. The truth is, the world can be a dangerous place, with or without ISIS. Wherever you are or wherever you go, you will be at risk for something bad to happen.

Here are some statistics on Terror attacks in the US since 1970. These facts are from Wikipedia.

In the 70’s there were 16 attacks.

In the 80’s there were 3 attacks .

In the 90’s there were7 attacks .

In the 2000’s there were 31 attacks.

In the 2010’s there have been 15 attacks.

These #’s are misleading though. When we think of a terrorist attack we always think of something big, where the damage and casualties are staggering. That is not the case though. Look at the definition of terrorism above again. It says” the unlawful use of force to coerce in furtherance of political or social objectives.” It doesn’t say how big or how many are involved in the attack. The thing you should look for when reading about a terrorist attack is,,,, was it a mass murder or a single act of violence by one man in the name of his faith?

For instance here are some examples on Wikipedia’s list of terrorist attacks;

9/11 USA, New York, NY
Islamic hijackers steer two planes packed with fuel and passengers into the World Trade Center, killing hundreds on impact and eventually killing thousands when the towers collapsed. At least 200 are seriously injured.

3/19/2002 USA, Tucson, AZ
A 60-year-old man is gunned down by Muslim snipers on a golf course.

5/27/2002 USA, Denton, TX
Muslim snipers kill a man as he works in his yard.

7/4/2002 USA, Los Angeles, CA
Muslim man pulls out a gun at the counter of an Israeli airline and kills two people.

So you see terrorist attacks are defined the same but should not be categorized the same. On the whole list I saw only about 4 that can be defined as a mass murder. The others all were random acts of violence, basically “Hate Crimes”

Mass Murder defined;

Mass murder (sometimes interchangeable with “mass destruction”) is the act of murdering several or more people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time. The FBI defines mass murder as murdering three or more persons during an event with no “cooling-off period” between the murders.

Mass Shooting defined;

Mass shooting refers to an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. Mass shootings can be a form of mass murder, which is commonly categorized as the murder of four or more people with no cooling off period.

The US statistics on the other hand are quite shocking. According to Wikipedia, there have been over 100 mass murders in the country since the 70’s. Interestingly enough it started with the Manson Family murderers in 1969. These are not religion related.

I hope I didn’t freak you out with all these facts. My point to all this is that we don’t have to feel like prisoners because of the threat of a terrorist attack.

We haven’t had a plane hijacked since 9-11. There have only been six planes ever hijacked in the US. So don’t be afraid to fly.

There have only been 4 railway attacks in the world since 2010. So don’t be afraid to take the train.

Your as safe now as you’ve ever been. I’ve got a better chance of getting hit by a bus than kicking the bucket in a terrorist attack.

Have a great Holiday season. Feel free to travel our country as you please.

This article was in no way meant disrespectful for those who have died or been affected in anyway from a terror attack. Nor am I in agreement with any terror group, middle eastern or not.

Best Wishes,

My name is Will Garrett. I am a Travel Agent in California. I love what I do and I’m always looking for more people to help. Whether that is to plan your ideal family vacation to the Caribbean for ten days, or a romantic couples retreat to Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I will also help you become a travel agent, so you can build a rewarding business for you and your family as well. I can help you discover your new Career. Being a travel agent is being a problem solver, a researcher,and a professional planner.

You get to study the beautiful and exotic place’s in our world. Find out everything you can about what they have to offer, then you get to help make someones dreams come true by planning out all the details and making all the arrangements.

Travelling is a great fun activity which I like most. This is a wonderful world, full of natural beauty and man-made attractions. There are many places of historical, cultural and religious significance worth seeing and visiting. Travelling provides an excellent opportunity of visiting the unseen places and meeting people from diverse cultural backgrounds, speaking different languages.

Travelling takes you away from your tense daily routine life and lands you at an exciting new place, much different from yours. You spend some time in a totally new environment, meet people from a different cultural background, visit places that you have never seen, eat food that is of a different taste and experience lot of other things. All that excites you and takes away all kind of tensions from your mind. You feel relaxed, start realizing new realities, accept cultural differences in living styles and come closer to other people. This brings international harmony, friendship and cooperation in many fields, useful for the mankind. Travelling also expands your mental horizon and increase your knowledge. You cannot learn from the books what you learn from your own experience.

Apart from pleasure travelling, people travel abroad for various other reasons. Students travel abroad to get admission in the institutions of their choice. Some people travel for business purposes while others travel for health reasons and medical checkups. The young people mostly travel for seeking employment or getting married. People also travel for professional requirements and family reunion, etc.

Some countries are much cheaper than your own country so visiting and spending some time in one of those countries actually saves you money which you can use for travel expenses.

Some countries need your services and, therefore, offer you better wages and other benefits. If you are a multi-lingual and have experience in teaching a language then you can become a language teacher and earn good money. You can also work as a translator or interpreter.

For whatever purpose you are travelling make sure that you possess proper travel documents and endorsement of visas for the countries you want to visit. It is also important to respect the law of the land you are visiting. Never engage yourself in any illegal activity.

It is advisable that you plan your visit 2/3 months ahead of travel and book your seats 3-4 weeks before travel so that you get the best deal on purchase of tickets from the airlines. Make your trip memorable and bring back home sweet memories of your visit abroad.

Traveling to another country can be an exciting adventure. Don’t let custom regulations and shipping complications keep you from your destination. If you are planning a trip or move to Bulgaria or anywhere else overseas, international shipping company Cargo Experts has some valuable information that you should know.

Bulgaria has deep roots. While the prehistoric cultures began developing on the Bulgarian territory during the Neolithic period, the first Bulgarian Empire was established in 681 AD. Because Bulgaria occupies a large amount of the eastern Balkan Peninsula, it also borders five countries (Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania). With a strong sense of history and tradition, this democratic country is still thriving today with a population of 7.4 million people.

Bulgaria ranks 105 as the world’s largest country and features many geographical elements such as mountains, plains and sea life. Bulgaria is mostly an urbanized country divided into 28 provinces. Because most of the culture and commercialization is located in the largest city, Sofia has been named the capital of Bulgaria. This country strives in its economic and natural industries like engineering and agriculture.

If you are planning on moving overseas to Bulgaria or living in Bulgaria for an extended period of time, it may be helpful for you to work with a cargo shipping company to ship personal items and household goods to Bulgaria.

During the planning stage of your international shipping to Bulgaria, make sure your goods and documents are up-to-date. Follow these custom regulations for successful shipping to Bulgaria.

Customs Regulations for Shipping to Bulgaria

Bulgaria requires documentation for all wishing to enter into this country. You must have a passport valid for at least three months beyond the length of stay. Visas are not required for stays less than 90 days. After this time a visa is required.

Bulgaria requires all travelers to follow specific custom regulations. This includes rules for items that are freely imported, prohibited items and restricted items. Freely imported items include volume regulated bottles of up to 1 liter, coffee, tea, water, wine and perfume. This country also allows cigarettes and cigars to be imported as well. Cash sums of more than $4,000 must be converted to levs before entering Bulgaria. And pets must have their proper documentation including a veterinary certificate.

Prohibited and Restricted Items When Shipping To Bulgaria

Bulgaria strictly prohibits illegal drugs, guns and ammunition. Any dangerous weapons such as knives and other chemicals are not allowed in this country as well. Bulgaria has certain restrictions on the importation of home computers, alcohol, jewelry and silver. Electrical items and furniture are among the items subject to duties and must have invoice documentation.

While Bulgaria has strict laws covering ammunition, guns and other weapons, hunting ammunition and guns can be imported to Bulgaria under special conditions. All medications must be up-to-date and any animal or plant specimens must have the appropriate documentation.

Shipping A Car to Bulgaria

If you are interested in shipping a car to Bulgaria, please note that Bulgaria requires all automobile owners to present the original title of the vehicle. You will also need to provide a purchase invoice, insurance certificate and a customs deposit. These documents are necessary for your car’s arrival and entry into Bulgaria.

Foreign Citizens Temporarily Moving to Bulgaria

For those coming to Bulgaria temporarily for work or pleasure, you must obtain a temporary resident passport issued by the Bulgarian authorities. You must also obtain a letter you’re your employer proving that you are employed in Bulgaria (including period of time and labor contract number).

You should make a list of the serial numbers of all electrical appliances that you are shipping to Bulgaria. This list must show the approximate value of household goods declared by owner. Keep in mind that COD payments are not allowed.

‘Do it while you are young, or you’ll regret it later.’ We all have heard this sentence at least once in our life and scratched our heads in surprise. Well, it might sound weird but actually a young body and a young mind has much more power than any other age’s person. It is said that a youngster has the potential of creating a new world and a treasure of things that are hard to be done by anybody else. Similarly, traveling and taking trips while one is young helps them in a lot of things. From personality to behavior, everything gets a makeover when you travel while being young. Here is the list of the reasons that justify the same strongly.

1. It helps you in making decisions about life: A young mind has all the energy and enthusiasm to think about various aspects of life but making decisions about life requires a strong and mature mindset. While you take a trip, you get to explore new places, people and discover many new vistas that eventually helps you in making opinions and decisions too.

2. You become Smarter: Traveling isn’t only about discovering new places, meeting different people, but it is also about making choices that matter and affect you directly or indirectly. It gives you the power of deciding between what is wrong and what is right, hence giving you a mindset with the help of which you eventually become smarter.

3. You become an interesting person: This is yet another positive aspect of taking a tour that makes you likeable among others. The places you explore and the people you meet influence you in one way or the other, thus you tend to understand their perspectives and give yourself a new personality which is interesting and different too. You can notice the change yourself after taking a trip.

4. You’ll grow culturally and socially: This particular point clearly signifies the importance of taking an excursion while being young. The more you travel, the more you will get exposure and the more you’ll grow. Making a move takes you to different cities, places and get to know various cultures that teaches you the values and importance of culture and social life.

5. You learn to manage your life: Now this is something we all need to do but if you are wondering how you can manage your life while going on an excursion, then here is the answer. No trip is easy, you have to face many challenges and take hardships to reach your destination, and similarly, life has many ups and downs that can be managed once you start exploring.

6. It changes your way of relating to the world: Everyone has a different vision and their own type of intelligence. The behavior and actions of a human being also vary to different situations and even places. You might act normal at your home but accept it you are different at various places and with different people too. So if you go on an expedition, you get to know more things and act accordingly.

7. Because you deserve it: Like totally! I don’t think that this requires a justification even. It’s your life and your time so live and enjoy as much as you can because nothing stays forever and time doesn’t stop for anyone. So, book a cheap flight soon and explore that place you’ve been planning from long.

It is not always good to procrastinate things so have as much fun as you can because you won’t be forever young.

When on December 12, 2014 MV Mutambala, a ferry operating on Lake Tanganyika, sank in a storm there was little news coverage. The disaster claimed the lives of up to 150 passengers, mostly women and children. Strong winds and overloading are said to be the cause of the tragedy. It is not uncommon for ships operating on Lake Tanganyika to sink, usually for the same reasons.

This great lake of Africa allows us a peek into a world far apart from the mournful world we live in today. In this remote interior of the Dark Continent is still to be found evidence of German innovation, cutting-edge technology and benign colonialism. Operating on the lake today is a ship that really does appear to be unsinkable. What a remarkable history this vessel has. The 1,600 ton MV Graf von Goetzen was built in Germany in 1913 but not in a conventional way. The shipbuilders, Meyer Werft built the Graf von Goetzen in thousands of separate parts.

After assembling it to make sure all was as it should be the MV Graf von Goetzen was disassembled and its parts packed in 5,000 crates. These containers were shipped to East Africa, then a German Protectorate. Germany’s economy in 1913 was on a high as were German spirits. That year, the Kaiser’s daughter Viktoria Luise, was to marry a commoner. Like millions of fellow Europeans many thousands of Germans emigrated to Germany’s overseas colonies and protectorates.

On reaching the East African port of Dar es Salaam the thousands of crates, each containing parts of the 234 feet ferry-liner, were unloaded. The containers were then shipped across the jungle savannah to Kigoma, a small lakeside town an incredible 1,300 kilometres distant. Soon afterwards, teams of German master fitters and shipbuilders arrived and set about rebuilding the liner on the shores of the great lake. Lake Tanganyika, the second largest lake in the world and named after the Deutsch-Ostafrika protectorate, borders four countries. The length of England it is an average 50 kilometres in width.

There was little or none of the plunder and bloodletting suffered by the colonies of other European nations. James Conrad, the great Polish-English novelist, was scathing about cruelties practiced in the Belgian Congo. “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.’

Such bliss was not set to last. In 1917, three years after the outbreak of the Great War, British troops advanced on Lake Tanganyika. To prevent the ship from falling into British hands this fine vessel was scuttled and it appeared to have met its Waterloo at the bottom of this fantastic lake. The town’s German captives were taken into captivity and were to remain in British concentration camps until 1920 two years after the war’s end.

Later raised to the surface, the Graf von Goetzen, now named Liemba, was returned to service. In 1951, it became internationally famous. The Liemba is the gunboat, Luisa, in the movie, African Queen. The stars were Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Today, this proud liner still carries passengers from township to township, delivering produce to markets, and offering a vital supply linkage to the four Central African republics.

It was disheartening to learn of the recent sinking of the Mutambala with such terrible loss of life. Somehow, I am relieved to know that the ship involved was not the Graf von Goetzen. When this incredible feat of German engineering goes keel up may it do so with honors.

Aside from being the sister island of Skopelos, Skiathos is also considered the smallest inhabited island in the Sporades archipelago. But don’t let its size deceive you. Skiathos has managed to become an unspoiled, breathtaking, premier holiday destination for the island nation of Greece.

Despite being gifted with fantastic natural attributes like dramatic landscape and beautiful beaches; Skiathos also somehow possesses a cosmopolitan side. It boasts a bustling nightlife. The central hub for entertainment on the island has got to be the pedestrian street by the Old Harbor. Here, you will find a slew of bars and clubs that host youngsters and party revelers until the wee hours of the morning. Another notable nightlife area is Ammoudia, which is situated on the road that leads to the airport. This area is known for its huge open air clubs. Aside from the consistent nightlife. Skiathos is the regular venue for concerts, art exhibitions and cultural events during summer.

The island is the only one of the Northern Sporades islands that maintains an airport. And its capital and biggest settlement, Skiathos Town in the east, is also served by regular ferry and hydrofoil services that connect to neighboring islands like Alonnisos and Skopelos. Skiathos town is a new and modern resort equipped with impressive tourist facilities.

The town’s most notable landmark is its natural harbor, which has also become a yacht and sail boat docking area. Some of the attractions in town include the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and its museums; the Kastro (castle) and the former home of the renowned author Alexandros Papadiamantis that has been turned into a museum. The other prominent towns, villages and even resorts on Skiathos are mostly found along the island’s southern coast.

Skiathos has more than 60 beaches and inlets to choose from! A number of these spots boasts golden sands and that famous aqua marine clear water that the Greek isles are known for. The most famous among these sandy stretches is the pine forest adorned Koukounaries (Golden Sand), which is often hailed as one of the most beautiful beaches in the whole Mediterranean region. Koukounaries is home to a campsite and a selection of tavernas. Another beach you should consider visiting is Banana Beach, also known as Krassa Bay. Banana is popular for its bar parties and water sports facilities. Western beaches like Mandráki, and Small and Big Asélinos are more low-key, serene and barely receive visitors.

Troulos and Koukounaries are two of the most prominent resorts in the southern coast. Outdoor and beach lovers absolutely adore these two spots because of the abundance of water sports opportunities offered here. If you wish to experience the more rugged and unadulterated side of the island, venture to its northern side, where mountainous terrain rules. This is a great region to experience some serious hiking adventures.

A number of visitors use the abandoned town of Kastro as the gateway to exploring the north. Just off the coast of Skiathos are smaller islands waiting to be visited. You can easily arrange for a boat to bring you to these most gorgeous islets that are generally devoid of people. Boúrtzi is one example of these alluring islands. It is known for its lush vegetation, outstanding panoramas and the ruins of a Venetian fortress built around 1207. Boúrtzi has developed a reputation of being one of the most romantic places on Skiathos

Even though most people dream of traveling the world, what they might be failing to take into account is the preparation that is needed. Traveling can be incredibly extensive as well as international vacation so you must plan accordingly. With a travel agency or not, international travel is still something that you should be thoroughly prepared for. With this in mind, below you will find some helpful advice as to what is important in order to make sure that you aren’t forgetting anything.

Get tickets

Now, if you are planning a worldwide trip it’s likely that you are going to travel by airplane. Interestingly enough, some airlines are going to offer you package tickets which include all the cities that you are going to visit on your holiday. Even though the service is rather costly, it is definitely going to save you a lot of headache and it’s going to make the trip much more enjoyable.

List of documents

Travelling to different countries might require all sorts of documentation. Make sure to do research prior to your trip in order to determine the type of documentation that you are going to need for each country. Obviously, you are going to take your passport, but some places might require additional paper work. Include those in a list and make sure to check them all out before you leave.

Prepare your home

Trips around the world last. That’s for sure. You need to make all the necessary preparations in order to be sure that your home will be in proper condition when you get back. The best thing to do is to ask a member of your family or a close friend to move into your house temporarily during the months that you will be travelling. It is always better to have someone to take care of your home while you are away. However, if you can’t find anyone at least make sure that a friend of yours is stopping by every now and then just to make sure that everything is in order.

Pack your bags

Do not take too many clothes. Taking off with your entire closet is definitely going to be an inconvenience because, after all, you will spend your time travelling and not resting at one location. Take whatever you feel is essential because you will likely buy clothes on the trip anyways.

Make reservations

Make a schedule of your trip and make reservations accordingly. Make sure to always have a room in a hotel whenever you reach your destination. You are going to be visiting places that you’ve never been to before and it’s comforting to know that you have a place to sleep in.

As you can see, traveling around the world can mean a lot of preparation.